The rand weakened almost 1.5% against the dollar in afternoon trade on Monday, following a report showing South Africa’s first quarter unemployment rate to be the highest on record.<\/p>\n
The local currency opened stronger on Monday on news that ratings agency Moody\u2019s would keep the country\u2019s credit rating two levels above junk.<\/p>\n
Moody\u2019s said late on Friday that it would keep South Africa at its Baa2 credit rating, noting that the country was \u201capproaching a turning point\u201d after many years of economic decline.<\/p>\n
The rand initially strengthened back below R15 to the dollar, trading at R14.76 against\u00a0the US currency<\/strong> in the morning session. However, by 15h45, the unit had weakened 1.43% to R15.13<\/strong> against the dollar.<\/p>\n Data showed that South Africa\u2019s unemployment rate increased to 26.7% of the labour force in the first quarter of 2016, up 2.2\u00a0percentage points\u00a0from 24.5% in the fourth quarter of 2015 – the highest level since the survey of households began in 2008.<\/p>\n The expanded unemployment rate which includes those who were available to work but did not look for work in the reference period also increased by 2.5 percentage points between Q4: 2015 and Q1: 2016 to 36.3%, StatsSA said.<\/p>\n The rand also weakened sharply against the British pound, at R21.79 (-1.70%), and the euro, at R17.23 (-1.62%).<\/p>\n Rand strengthens as SA staves off downgrade \u2013 for now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nMore on the rand<\/h3>\n